Medical Pot, Subsidized Housing Clash

[bobandtorey]

• By Henry Erb

SPARTA, Mich. (WOOD) - Kathy Heller has degenerative discs in her back and has been controlling the pain with medical marijuana. She applied for and received a medical marijuana permit from the state of Michigan.

 

She lives in subsidized housing, utilizing a Section 8 rent supplement through the Wyoming Housing Commission which governs her area. She showed them her medical marijuana card and they made a copy.

 

A year later, they sent her a letter terminating her rent subsidy for her apartment.

 

Michigan is one of 15 states , plus the District of Columbia, that permits the legal use of medical marijuana. But the federal government maintains pot is illegal, and its rules are clashing with state law.

 

"We're federally funded," said Rebeca Geerling of the Wyoming Housing Commission, "and federal rules (and) regulations pretty much supercede or govern what our agency does."

 

But Target 8 investigators found the federal government does give local agencies leeway to allow medical pot users to keep their subsidies.

 

Geerling, though, said, "We try to stick closely to our policy." And that policy is to terminate anyone using drugs.

 

"I figure if the state says it's OK, then the government should say it's OK, too," Heller told Target 8.

 

Without her nearly $600-per-month subsidy, she said, her apartment would use up her whole disability check.

 

"I'd probably have to move back in with somebody, like I was before I lived here."

 

She said the Wyoming Housing Commission told her they'd let her keep her rent subsidy if she did not renew her medical marijuana card.

 

"So what do I do then?" she asked. "Go back to the doctor and get all those pain killers all the time and be hopped up on pills in front of my kids? Or smoke a joint in my bedroom and come out and be sociable with with kids and not laid up on the couch on muscle relaxers?"

 

Heller hopes to hear the results of her appeal by mid-September.

 

 

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Medical-pot-subsidized-housing-clash

[donnachris]

• By Henry Erb

SPARTA, Mich. (WOOD) - Kathy Heller has degenerative discs in her back and has been controlling the pain with medical marijuana. She applied for and received a medical marijuana permit from the state of Michigan.

 

She lives in subsidized housing, utilizing a Section 8 rent supplement through the Wyoming Housing Commission which governs her area. She showed them her medical marijuana card and they made a copy.

 

A year later, they sent her a letter terminating her rent subsidy for her apartment.

 

Michigan is one of 15 states , plus the District of Columbia, that permits the legal use of medical marijuana. But the federal government maintains pot is illegal, and its rules are clashing with state law.

 

"We're federally funded," said Rebeca Geerling of the Wyoming Housing Commission, "and federal rules (and) regulations pretty much supercede or govern what our agency does."

 

But Target 8 investigators found the federal government does give local agencies leeway to allow medical pot users to keep their subsidies.

 

Geerling, though, said, "We try to stick closely to our policy." And that policy is to terminate anyone using drugs.[/b]

 

"I figure if the state says it's OK, then the government should say it's OK, too," Heller told Target 8.

 

Without her nearly $600-per-month subsidy, she said, her apartment would use up her whole disability check.

 

"I'd probably have to move back in with somebody, like I was before I lived here."

 

She said the Wyoming Housing Commission told her they'd let her keep her rent subsidy if she did not renew her medical marijuana card.

 

"So what do I do then?" she asked. "Go back to the doctor and get all those pain killers all the time and be hopped up on pills in front of my kids? Or smoke a joint in my bedroom and come out and be sociable with with kids and not laid up on the couch on muscle relaxers?"

 

Heller hopes to hear the results of her appeal by mid-September.

 

 

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/target_8/Medical-pot-subsidized-housing-clash

 

 

She's not using drugs. She's using a medicine, that by memorandum by the President of the United States, that allows the states to legalizae marijuana for medical use, she is allowed to use. Can't that be her defense as far as her appeal is concerned. She should write to the president.

[bobandtorey]

She's not using drugs. She's using a medicine, that by memorandum by the President of the United States, that allows the states to legalizae marijuana for medical use, she is allowed to use. Can't that be her defense as far as her appeal is concerned. She should write to the president.

 

 

their have been many more befor her

[donnachris]

it just pisses me off so damned bad. I'm tired of having to fight for something that we voted to have. I'm just plain tired of fighting.

[Guest knucklehead bob]

it just pisses me off so damned bad. I'm tired of having to fight for something that we voted to have. I'm just plain tired of fighting.

 

Welcome to the club .

[+Silverblue]

GRRRR

 

We're all tired of fighting. I've had to fight all my life, and it seems whoever we are, we''re always fighting against some injustice, especially the poor and minorities. Ya know the real irony of all this is, the ones abusing us are the real minority. I hate this world, I wish I was never born, not in this miserable place, ruined by greed. When the greed bug sets in, all common sense and compassion go out the window.

 

I shill don't know what happened to the lady with a brain tumor who was fighting eviction from fed housing. I fear the stress prob'ly killed her.

 

In May I met Shannon, who's still fighting her eviction. I guess a lot of people will be taking it up in court, and eventually, they'll win, but meanwhile, the stress they endure is unbearable, making their illness worse. No lack of compassion here, there's none to begin with. Thankfully in OUR Community, there's PLENTY of Compassion.

 

Sb

[donnachris]

GRRRR

 

We're all tired of fighting. I've had to fight all my life, and it seems whoever we are, we''re always fighting against some injustice, especially the poor and minorities. Ya know the real irony of all this is, the ones abusing us are the real minority. I hate this world, I wish I was never born, not in this miserable place, ruined by greed. When the greed bug sets in, all common sense and compassion go out the window.

 

I shill don't know what happened to the lady with a brain tumor who was fighting eviction from fed housing. I fear the stress prob'ly killed her.

 

In May I met Shannon, who's still fighting her eviction. I guess a lot of people will be taking it up in court, and eventually, they'll win, but meanwhile, the stress they endure is unbearable, making their illness worse. No lack of compassion here, there's none to begin with. Thankfully in OUR Community, there's PLENTY of Compassion.

 

Sb